(1808-1885), German painter and Illustrator

Carl Spitzweg was one of the most important artists of the Biedermeier. He created numerous images, oil studies, drawings and watercolours, whose strange, bizarre spun charm has made him the most popular representatives of the bourgeois genre and landscape painting in southern Germany.

Spitzweg was born into a wealthy merchant family in Munich and first successfully completed a scientific study. A disease led him to decide to become a painter. He continued his education and soon found himself connecting with other colleagues from the Munich School painters such as Moritz von Schwind.

Spitzweg is one of the great German painters and draftsmen of the 19th century. His most famous pictures like "The poor poet", the "Bookworm" or the "perpetual suitor" show nerds of bourgeois society, indulge their hobby horses, always lovingly and told with a wink.

He became one of Germany's most popular artists. He chose very small formats and described the character with accurate and precise detail in their respective milieu. So he reached a satirical exaggeration of the types, ranging to the grotesque. In his last work he put more emphasis to spontaneous, sketchy, moving what his landscapes is especially visible.

From the history of art he was only discovered in 1900, all his life he was never as famous as other contemporary painters.

Günter Dietz developed a revolutionary method for the authentic reproduction of images, where not the usual printing inks are used, but the same original colors used by the artist. Depending on the artist's painting technique, up to 180 (!) various paint applications need to be applied in order to achieve a perfect replica of the original that also sensationally reflects the "relief" and pastosity of colour composition.

Here are the examples of  'Couple at the Garden Table' by August Macke:

Similarly, the material of the original carrier, such as reproduction on canvas, paper, wood, copper, parchment is always used.

The result is a perfect, gridless reproduction that comes very close to the original in expressiveness and effect. Even museum specialists often can not distinguish the replica from the original. Therefore, a special security notice must be inserted, which is visible only under X-rays.

The circulation of most of the Dietz replicas is limited, usualy to 950 copies. Each canvas replica is stretched onto a frame as the original, so you can retighten the canvas according to variations in room temperature and humidity. High-quality solid wood strips round off the image of every Dietz replica.

Numerous masterpiece paintings of Rembrandt, Caspar David Friedrich, Claude Monet, Gustav Klimt and various others have been recreated by the Dietz Offizin. Famous modern artists such as Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall used the method developed by Günter Dietz to have replicas of their works produced.

Press commentaries:

“The Dietz System provides images as good as the originals. What the electronics did with the invention of Hi-Fi and stereo for music playback - here the graphic technology made up for visual art.“ (Die Zeit)

“In theory there is no difference between the original and the Dietz replica. They should not be called reproductions, but facsimiles.“ (Newsweek)

“For art printers all over the world remains unrealizable to this day, what managed only Dietz with the help of printing technology: The perfect reproduction of painted works. “ (Der Spiegel)

Konrad Adenauer at the presentation of Dietz replica of the frieze "To the young St. Peter" (Bundeshaus Bonn)



Günter Dietz (on the left) and Marino Marini

Representation of typical scenes of daily life in painting, which can distinguish between peasant, bourgeois and courtly themes.

The genre reached its peak and immense popularity in the Dutch painting of the 17th century. In the 18th century, especially in France, the courtly and gallant painting comes to the fore while in Germany the bourgeois character was emphasised.

Art and culture in the period from 1815 to approx. 1860, between romanticism and realism in German-speaking countries. The epoch took its name from the weekly "Fliegende Blätter", where the poems by Swabian schoolteacher Gottlieb Biedermaier were regularly published between 1855 and 1857.

The painting of this period was determined by intimate, comfortable motifs. The masters of Biedermeier style were Carl Spitzweg, J. P. Hasenclever, G. F. Kersting among others. Ludwig Richter distinguished himself as an excellent illustrator.

After the German Centennial Exhibition 1906 in Berlin, the term "Biedermeier" established to describe fashion and simple, no-frills but high quality furniture.